What Corn Grits To Use... Bob's Red Mill?

[IAtodd]

Hi all,

I have a question about corn grits. We have been eating Bob's Red Mill corn grits, and for the first year or so of being gluten-free we seemed to be ok, but for the past ~6 mnonths my 5-year-old who acts hyper and mental (to put it bluntly) when he eats wheat started having frequent "relapses" after eating corn grits. My wife (also gluten-sensitive) started not feeling so well eating the grits too... but it's not like they go into anaphalactic shock, so we're not really sure about the grits. We switched to millet grits, but I persoanlly think they taste repulsive, and we had a bag of corn grits in the freezer, so I made some for myself and millet grits for the rest of the fam. Two days later I am having a hypersensitive skin episode that is extremely rare for me now that I've gone wheat-free. No other probs have arisen yet (BTW, we all went gluten-free after my son was tested, and maladies that I've suffered for my whole life have largely vanished... you know how it goes!). Long story short, have others had probs with Bob's Red Mill? If so, do you have any suggestions for an alternative brand?

Thanks in advance!

Todd T.

[Juliet]

If I remember correctly, the corn from Bob's Red Mill is milled in the same room and equipment where they mill wheat. I know you can't use their corn flour or starch, but I don't know if it applies to their grits or not, too. And I just checked their website and they do not list their corn grits as gluten free.

I'd avoid it. I found the longer you are gluten free, the more sensitive you become. Things that didn't bother my son or me 18 months ago really gets us now.

[MaryJones2]

I would switch to another brand and see what happens. If the Bob's package doesn't explicitly say gluten-free then it's not. I know Arrowhead Mills has gluten-free corn grits.

[IAtodd]

Funny you should mention switching brands... We were up in Minneapolis visiting the inlaws, and they made Quaker corn grits, which we doubted were truly safe, but we didn't want to seem overparanoid, so we said they were fine. Six hours later our son went mental in Home Depot. Now, I also gave him a few ounces of diet 7-up earlier in the day, and he has probably had Nutrasweet only 2 or 3 times ever (he's 5 BTW), so we figure it was either the grits or the Nutrasweet... or he was just acting out the way just about any other 5 year old would every so often. Of course, he's also slightly allergic to peas and the inlaws made dinner with peas in it two days previous, but peas only make him cough (so far as we know, and we gave him Benadryl)... so I suppose it could have been the after-effects of the peas. In any case, thanks for the info on the Arrowhead Mills corn grits. I can't wait to try them!